The Mr. Donut Blues is a portfolio of 11 prints made during the year
after I had heard the Goldenrod Jazz Band play the song by trumpet player
and band member Brian Casserly on the riverfront in St. Louis, Missouri.

I had heard the song only once and it took my breath away. Every
phrase went to my heart. I wanted to do a print based on the Mr. Donut
Blues. Back in Toronto, I leafed through my drawings of the band. At that
time I also liked the atmosphere of donut shops. I telephoned St. Louis
several times to ask Brian for the words to the song.

"It changes every time we play it."

"It isn't finished."

"I can't remember the words unless I'm playing."

Each time I called I got another verse or another version of a verse,
so the woodcuts came one after another. I didn't know how many I would
need to make the story complete.

The song is something special. It's funny and full of images. Friends
joked that my hours in donut shops had had a purpose after all. Now there
are eleven prints in The Mr. Donut Blues portfolio and I see the melancholy
in the song, but I didn't think about it as I worked.

WILEK MARKIEWICZ::

I don't try to find my style, I try not to impede the style from
finding me.

Through my work I discover myself from a distance, like a first viewer
and through the things I paint or carve I reveal to myself my magic interior
universe.

I like working in woodcut. The strength and grain of the wood always
surprise me. It does what it wants and I try to do what I want. So, I am
not in total control and the artist in me can be liberated.